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Reports of  Mumbai flowed to my radio as I traversed the rural midwest for the holiday. The recurring topic was the nationality of the attackers. My first thought was “are these guys really Pakistani?” They seem to be well-trained, if only because the amount of carnage from ten people showed a great deal of lethally-efficient planning.

That, alone, is certainly no indication of nationality. Fanning the nuclear-powered tensions certainly fuels chaos. “If this is part of the intention”, the second thought, “Do these guys have a cause?” The BBC suggests that this may be more like the events of Columbine or Va Tech, without a cause other than celebrity. I continue to pour over reports and photos looking for answers, dots to connect met with only more dots and fewer lines. Anyone else care to share their reaction?

you want to talk about hamas and appeasement, do you mr. 28% approval? great. let’s talk about hamas and appeasement:

“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I’m happy to have any time, any place, and that is a debate that I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for,” Obama said in a campaign speech in South Dakota.

“They’ve got to answer for the fact that Iran is the greatest strategic beneficiary of our invasion of Iraq. It made Iran stronger, George Bush’s policies,” he said. “They’re going to have to explain why Hamas now controls Gaza, Hamas that was strengthened because the United States insisted that we should have democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority.”

“That’s the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country,” he added. “Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on.”

barack obama was raised in a briar patch, bitches!

in case it isn’t obvious, this is more good cop/bad cop bullshit on behalf of john mccain. from here on out, look for this pattern: outrageous and incendiary attacks made by irrelevant right-wing figures with low mainstream credibility, followed up by heartfelt statements from candidate mccain in which he clucks his tongue and loudly bemoans our divisive politics, conveniently neglecting to contradict or directly address the outrageous claims of the attacks.

credit where it’s due: clinton didn’t fuck around on this one, calling bush’s comparison “offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy.” is this newfound emphasis on party loyalty a sign she’s beginning to accept the idea that obama has won? is it merely confirmation that she’s not, in fact, extraordinarily stupid and/or evil? or is it just more schizophrenic dithering? who knows, but hillary was a team player on this one, and it’s an encouraging sign. in fact, most of the big party leaders — pelosi, reid, emmanuel — have been impressively on-message and well synchronized lately in their efforts to shift the discussion toward john mccain and the clobbering he’s about to receive. is this what an organized and disciplined democratic party looks like? i’m not sure i’ve ever seen it before, but i could definitely get used to it.